[GUIDE] Online Gambling Affiliate - Make Money Promoting Online Gambling

[tyKiwanuka]

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Very interesting.

Looks like revenue share is indeed the way go, if you are in for the long run. I understand 40% being kind of standard/good and that looks a lot to me - would have guessed it to be way lower. But I assume gambling operators can still make a pretty good living with 60% and in the end they need new players frequently (from their aff).

What I was thinking when reading your post: Wouldn't the decision between Rev/CPA also depend on the gambling site itself ? Talking about bookmakers, there is quite a difference quality-wise. With some bookmakers you are more likely to play a lot (Revenue) and with others you will play only once in a while (CPA). Does that make sense ?


What about winning players in revenue model ? No risk for affiliates ?

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[efialtis]

~snip~

Very interesting.

Looks like revenue share is indeed the way go, if you are in for the long run. I understand 40% being kind of standard/good and that looks a lot to me - would have guessed it to be way lower. But I assume gambling operators can still make a pretty good living with 60% and in the end they need new players frequently (from their aff).

What I was thinking when reading your post: Wouldn't the decision between Rev/CPA also depend on the gambling site itself ? Talking about bookmakers, there is quite a difference quality-wise. With some bookmakers you are more likely to play a lot (Revenue) and with others you will play only once in a while (CPA). Does that make sense ?


What about winning players in revenue model ? No risk for affiliates ?

40% revenue share really isnt special - through "private deals", you can get even more than that. Examples: Bitcasino.io for example is paying up to 45% (standard), Sportsbet.io 35% (standard) - no, I am not affiliated with any of these - just mentioning them because they are two of the bigger crypto gambing brands.

I agree it´s quite a lot and that´s why people should go for Revenue Share! Its a great deal for gambling operators anyways, they still make good money and - absolutely correct - they are actually getting constant traffic and only pay for it when people actually generate revenue. Seriously, running a successful affiliate program is great stuff for any gambling brand - that´s until they get greedy and become shady... again, thats a different story.

True - when choosing between Revenue Share / CPA, it always make sense to take a closer look at the site you are going to promote. Are we talking about a huge brand with great reputation? Revenue Share all the way! Are we talking about a brand new site you cant really tell yet? Well, you really may consider the CPA deal. But then again - personally I would only recommend/promote highly trusted / high quality sites... To sum this up: Yes, your point absolutely makes sense.

Last but not least: Many new affiliates are worried about winning players when going for revenue share - but heres the good news - no reputable affiliate program will make you pay in case your revenue goes negative. A negative balance definitely happens, there can be big swings, especially with casino players. If one of your players hits a jackpot for example, you may have a long way to go before you get positive again - heres one more good news, usually you can talk with your affiliate manager and they may remove the player or find another solution.

With most programs, your balance will "just" be negative until your players lose enough. Some programs also offer no negative carryover: In that case, your balance will be reset to zero if you end up in the negatives.

[efialtis]

How to create a website

You want to become a successful gambling affiliate, you need a website! If the whole online marketing thing is new to you, creating a website may seem like a very hard task but trust me - it´s not as difficult as you think and technically creating a nice website is much easier than you would think. Read this post and you will see it´s no rocket science at all!

I will focus on how you can easily set up a new website and everything that is needed to so and best of all: Not only is it going to be easier than you may think, it´s also not going to cost a fortune!


Quick start guide on how to create a website in 4 steps:

1) Buy a domain

You need to get a domain - a domain name is the address where your website can be found online, for example efialtisweb.com. Prices for domains have been dropping and you can buy a domain for around $10 for a year - many times even way cheaper as domain name registrants are often offering promo deals. A common address to register a domain name is namecheap.com but there are many more out there. Please stay away from "free domains" - nobody will take your site seriously if you go with a free domain (with alternative address) instead of spending $10 for a year...

2) Buy web hosting

You don´t only need a domain name, which is your address, you also need some space online, where you can upload your website and this is called web hosting. Your domain name will be pointing to this space. Many people use GoDaddy for their web hosting but you could even get cheaper deals elsewhere. Again, I will name a few more options in a separate post. When buying web space, you shouldn´t only look at the lowest price - a lower price usually means worse support, more downtime and you don´t want that for your website!

3) Build your website

Well, before putting anything up on the Internet, you will of course have to build a website. Years ago, building websites used to be much harder than nowadays and people needed more programming/designing skills. Most affiliates bought designs or used free ones and edited/customized them via software such as Dreamweaver. Great news: Forget all of that! Thank´s god there is Wordpress nowadays! With Wordpress, you can get your site up and running in just a few minutes - literally! Wordpress is a CMS (Content Management System) that is very easy to use and I can highly recommend it. It´s not just "a" but "the" most popular CMS in the world, individuals as well as companies are using Wordpress and they are doing so for good reason! Wordpress is open-source, it´s free, it´s customizable, it supports many languages, it supports millions of themes and plugins. I will create a separate post on how to build a website using Wordpress.

4) Upload your website to your web space

After having bought a domain and hosting, you need to upload your files to your web space. This used to be harder back in the day because with Wordpress, you will now be able to automatically install it with just one click (for example when using GoDaddy for your hosting). Otherwise, you can use various ftp programs in order to upload files from your computer to your web space. FileZilla is a common option but there are many more. All you need to do is entering some hosting info and you will be able to transfer files directly to your web space.


You see, building a website and get it up and running isn´t very hard - it´s pretty easy. This is just a quick guide of course covering only the basic steps. Anyone and I mean it, anyone can create a website, it´s as simple as following the 4 steps mentioned above. More detailed posts covering the specific steps will follow shortly (I hope rather sooner than later).

[efialtis]

First Steps

Okay, I think it‘s time for a post about the first steps on your journey to becoming a gambling affiliate. I recently posted about how to create a website and I suggest you read that post if you are completely new to creating websites etc.

So, let‘s not waste any more time and get straight to it. 5 steps to go!


1st Step – Choose a Niche for your affiliate business/website

As an upcoming affiliate, the very first step should be finding a good niche in the gambling market. By finding a niche you will have an easier time getting traffic and making money. Example: Competing for (generic/huge) terms such as „Online Casino“ will be way harder than „High roller Casino“. You need to find a niche that makes up just a small part of the gambling world.

If you target a niche and build a top notch quality website around it, you will receive more traffic to your website (comparably) and that traffic can be converted to real money players. Targeted traffic is way easier to convert even if the pure amount of traffic is less. Don‘t try to compete with the big gambling affiliates right away, the competition is extremely hard and making money will be tough.

Do your research, online gambling is so complex, you will surely find a part that is promising affiliate wise as well as of personal interest to you. Ideally you need to find a niche with relatively little competition and lots of search engine traffic. I will create a more detailed post on finding a gambling niche later and link it here.

2nd Step – The Domain Name

As easy as it may sound, choosing a domain name can be hard – it‘s the name of your site and it needs to be attractive as well as fitting your niche. Back in the day, internet marketers focused on getting their desired keywords into their domain name but to be honest, things have changed by now and this is no longer „essential“ - yeah, it won‘t hurt of course if you can come up with a domain name that not only sounds/reads nice but also contains your main keyword but with Google‘s recent updates, Branding has become more and more important.

I personally prefer domain names that are as short as possible as well as catchy – it‘s a dream come true obviously if you can find a domain name that additionally contains your keywords. Fact is, no matter if your domain contains your focus keywords or not, you can still rank for any term and I will create a more detailed post on the topic of how to choose a domain name and link it here at a later point.

3rd Step – Get a nice Webdesign

Well, even though I have created and run dozens of affiliate websites for many years, I have never been a (good) webdesigner at all and you know what? It doesn‘t matter at all, you don‘t need to be good at that to become a successful affiliate. Of course it won‘t hurt if you are good it but it‘s by no means essential.

Some new affiliates are making a big mistake by „wasting“ lots of time on trying to design their website on their own – in many cases in order to avoid additional costs – still, I highly recommend you don‘t do that. Your time is valuable and you should use it for productive stuff.

Many years ago, when I started out as an affiliate, there weren‘t as many options available as nowadays and I really tried to build a website from scratch all on my own. The site sucked big time and I wasted countless hours. I finally hired someone to create a great design for me, paid around 200 USD or so and it was one of the best decisions. Nowadays it‘s even easier – you have wordpress (CMS), which comes with thousands of great free themes and then there are several specific premium wordpress themes available, that specifically cater gambling affiliates – these look extremely nice and are optimized for affiliates. You know what? They don‘t cost a fortune and you can get such themes for around $50 or so… a steal really!

A post on webdesign/recommended wordpress themes for gambling affiliates will follow soon.

4th Step – Content is King, write lots of it

Cliché or not – Content is King and it‘s a fact and easily the most important aspect of any affiliate website. Even if you found the perfect niche, without good (and lots of) content, you won‘t ever be a successful affiliate. Just throwing up some lame content and affiliate links on your site won‘t do the trick nowadays – thanks god it won‘t! Instead, you really have to provide lots of top quality content. If you website features great content, your visitors will browse way longer through your site (google ranking factor nowadays), other webmasters as well as regular people will link back to your website and you will obviously rank for various keywords on Google → more entry points for traffic.

Some people really neglect how important quality content is – especially with gambling sites, where so many sites feature the same old stuff. You should never forget a website‘s real use case for each and every visitor: If you visit a website, you are looking for information and you as an affiliate need to make sure, that your visitors can find the exact information they are looking for and in a quality as good as possible.

My rule of thumb is that any affiliate should try to get a minimum of one article online each and every day – sounds harder than it is! Two articles of nice quality a day are even better and will help you rank better much faster. A high quality website is never „finished“ and you should keep adding new content to your website regularly even after reaching 100 pages – don‘t forget that as an affiliate, this is actually your job, it‘s the source of your income and the more traffic you get, the more money you will earn.

A post with tips on Content Creation will follow and linked here.

5th Step – Good, old Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is a huge field and every affiliate has to deal with it – after all, thousands of websites are competing with each other to get as much traffic from the search engines as possible. You will have a hard time succeeding if you don‘t care about SEO. There are some „rules“ and guidelines you need to follow, in order for your site to rank as good as possible in the search engines. The better your rankings are, the more traffic you will receive and the more money you will make.

Since SEO is such a big topic, I won‘t go into detail here. I will create a post on SEO Basics shortly and link it here. Don‘t be scared though, SEO is no rocket-science… it can be considered some sort of science indeed but anyone can follow the basics and this helps a lot on the way to becoming a successful affiliate.

[Strongkored]

I read your post and it is really very useful.

Is only wordpress platform can be use to build a website for affiliate?

I am not too good at wordpress usually build a web using blogspost.

[ShowOff]

It seems like this thread has opened up my insight and knowledge again about how someone can make money from gambling without risking money for gambling. Not only me, a beginner can also be recommended to do it if they want to get bitcoin without having to become a bounty hunter or other that has been widely recommended.

Yes, maybe so far I have often overlooked the opportunities around us to become an affiliate of gambling sites and now it is good for me to learn the basics of how I should start.

[Chikito]

Is only wordpress platform can be use to build a website for affiliate?
I am not too good at wordpress usually build a web using blogspost.

OP means web hosting like WordPress. A lot of out there host service and VPS to build website, not only Wordpress, you can use another CMS (Content Management System), this means Blogspot you are mentioned not enough to build it all, let's try to rent cheaps hosting $2/month to begin/learning (with limited service).

[efialtis]

I read your post and it is really very useful.

Is only wordpress platform can be use to build a website for affiliate?

I am not too good at wordpress usually build a web using blogspost.

Wordpress is not a web hosting service but simply the very "best" CMS (definitely good enough for gambling affiliates) out there. I can't recommend going with Blogspot or the likes but you could do that of course - you could also hand code everything yourself but why would you do that?

What do you mean by "not too good at Wordpress"? - Just buy some cheap hosting at GoDaddy or so and your Wordpress website can be up and running within a few minutes (have everything installed with just a few clicks). You don't even need ftp programs nowadays.

[efialtis]

Hey guys,

there are still so many topics and things left I want to share with you but since my time is very limited at the moment, I will stop updating this thread for the time being. I will get back to that in a month or two, hopefully.

Full disclosure: While creating this thread and writing about gambling affiliating, I realized I have to get back to this, so stay tuned and be prepared...

[efialtis]

Hey guys,

there are still so many topics and things left I want to share with you but since my time is very limited at the moment, I will stop updating this thread for the time being. I will get back to that in a month or two, hopefully.

Full disclosure: While creating this thread and writing about gambling affiliating, I realized I have to get back to this, so stay tuned and be prepared...

Well, that thread "inspired" me to get back in the game and around 2.5 months after I posted I would get back to this, here we go: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5262141.0

[efialtis]

Would you be interested in me continuing this thread/guide?

I am currently thinking about starting a new project and (assuming I will go for it), we could even do something like a Journal - how long will it take to build a XXX gambling affiliate site and how long until we start making money? This might even be more interesting than "just" educational posts?

[Gotumoot]

Would you be interested in me continuing this thread/guide?

I am currently thinking about starting a new project and (assuming I will go for it), we could even do something like a Journal - how long will it take to build a XXX gambling affiliate site and how long until we start making money? This might even be more interesting than "just" educational posts?

Yes please continue and I also want to earn from affiliate program but I think I am lacking of something,
I used to promote some gambling site through my affiliate link and not just gambling sites I also promote some HYIP back in the old days but I didn't get any person to register using my link.
I had some person's who would comment or ask about the sites but I would soon find out that they are registered to it without using my affiliate links and some of my online friends told me that there are some who would cut-off the affiliate links and only copy the websites address,
This is why I chose to stop promoting any website, Any tips on how I could make them use my link?

[NotATether]

Would you be interested in me continuing this thread/guide?

I am currently thinking about starting a new project and (assuming I will go for it), we could even do something like a Journal - how long will it take to build a XXX gambling affiliate site and how long until we start making money? This might even be more interesting than "just" educational posts?

I just saw your group of guides, and they are extremely useful to me as one of my long term plans is to launch an affiliate news site (not really affiliate gambling but close enough). This is not going to happen any time soon though, because I need to secure funding for it.

I benefited from the website design guide the most, I suck at programming websites and design so I end up making old fashioned 90s sites with bare HTML.

I agree with you that Wordpress is a must-use for websites, but the large cache of themes for sale; I wonder if there's a way to buy them with bitcoin.

[famososMuertos]

:...//...
         :

Knowing the trail that each user leaves in its path is difficult ... it is like the comet that appears every certain orbit and you have to take advantage of it, I think the comet is returning !!
I like the idea in practice, as you mentioned ... in my case I would like to start one in Spanish* "profe" (abbreviation for teacher in Spanish)
Hey !! that this idea (crude) arises with the emotion of your post, so, you have inspired me. you have a successful site and you still take the trouble to stop by to help others.

I can't again just watch the comet go by... just to say, when do you happen again?

I sign up.

____
(*)Although the language as a barrier is the least, but as a niche in the traffic it is important.

[efialtis]

Would you be interested in me continuing this thread/guide?

I am currently thinking about starting a new project and (assuming I will go for it), we could even do something like a Journal - how long will it take to build a XXX gambling affiliate site and how long until we start making money? This might even be more interesting than "just" educational posts?

I just saw your group of guides, and they are extremely useful to me as one of my long term plans is to launch an affiliate news site (not really affiliate gambling but close enough). This is not going to happen any time soon though, because I need to secure funding for it.

I benefited from the website design guide the most, I suck at programming websites and design so I end up making old fashioned 90s sites with bare HTML.

I agree with you that Wordpress is a must-use for websites, but the large cache of themes for sale; I wonder if there's a way to buy them with bitcoin.

If you are really sure about that - I mean that you want to give this a try - go for it now, even if you only put up a landing page now - just register the domain for a few bucks and put something on there --> let the domain age, this will help you a lot when you decide you are ready to really work on it. I wish I had registered my BTCGOSU domain earlier - would have saved me lots of time now. Age of a domain is super important for big G...

Also - you wouldn't have to start "big" right away and the starting costs really aren't that much - register a domain for 10 bucks, buy a cheap hosting for another 10 bucks, get yourself a free wordpress theme (there are really nice free WP themes) and write the content. I guess you are thinking about some sort of news blog?

Seriously, I highly recommend going the wordpress route instead of trying to code stuff yourself - I have been there...

I am not sure regarding payment for themes via BTC, would have to google.

[NotATether]

If you are really sure about that - I mean that you want to give this a try - go for it now, even if you only put up a landing page now - just register the domain for a few bucks and put something on there --> let the domain age, this will help you a lot when you decide you are ready to really work on it. I wish I had registered my BTCGOSU domain earlier - would have saved me lots of time now. Age of a domain is super important for big G...

Also - you wouldn't have to start "big" right away and the starting costs really aren't that much - register a domain for 10 bucks, buy a cheap hosting for another 10 bucks, get yourself a free wordpress theme (there are really nice free WP themes) and write the content. I guess you are thinking about some sort of news blog?

Yep, a kind of blog where I hire people to write the content for me.

About the domains, if I were to register one right now, how many months will it take for Google to take it seriously? I have web hosting already so making a landing page won't be a problem, I just don't want surprises where I leave a domain idle for a few months only to find out Google won't index it high when I'm ready to use it.

Domains are super cheap when you pay for them once a year, but regardless I'm hoping Google doesn't make people wait that long.


Has ICANN ever contacted you about the domains of your sites by the way? I'm not sure how interested they are in investigating affiliate sites but this will give me a heads up to know what to expect in the future.

[efialtis]

If you are really sure about that - I mean that you want to give this a try - go for it now, even if you only put up a landing page now - just register the domain for a few bucks and put something on there --> let the domain age, this will help you a lot when you decide you are ready to really work on it. I wish I had registered my BTCGOSU domain earlier - would have saved me lots of time now. Age of a domain is super important for big G...

Also - you wouldn't have to start "big" right away and the starting costs really aren't that much - register a domain for 10 bucks, buy a cheap hosting for another 10 bucks, get yourself a free wordpress theme (there are really nice free WP themes) and write the content. I guess you are thinking about some sort of news blog?

Yep, a kind of blog where I hire people to write the content for me.

About the domains, if I were to register one right now, how many months will it take for Google to take it seriously? I have web hosting already so making a landing page won't be a problem, I just don't want surprises where I leave a domain idle for a few months only to find out Google won't index it high when I'm ready to use it.

Domains are super cheap when you pay for them once a year, but regardless I'm hoping Google doesn't make people wait that long.


Has ICANN ever contacted you about the domains of your sites by the way? I'm not sure how interested they are in investigating affiliate sites but this will give me a heads up to know what to expect in the future.

Google won't rank you highly just because a domain is "aged" but, the age of a domain is definitely one of the various factors and a domain that has been "live" for a couple of months will definitely make your life much easier when you start building the site for real.

Generally speaking, you need to expect at least one year before google starts giving you the rankings your site actually deserves.

Nope, I have never problems with ICANN and that is something I really wouldn't worry about...

Let me know if you need help with anything specifically but listen to me - register that domain, make a little landing page and let it age, now!

[efialtis]

Time flies, doesn't it? Half a year passed since I created my BTCGOSU ANN thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5262141.0

That was also the time when my "real" website went live - I uploaded some basic stuff a little earlier but the real launch of https://www.btcgosu.com happened when I created my ANN thread here on Bitcointalk.

Half a year later, I can tell that we are on a very good way but of course nowhere close to where we want to be.

Just thought I would give a mini update and let everyone know that you can of course ask questions if there's anything you would like to know.

[NotATether]

Let me know if you need help with anything specifically but listen to me - register that domain, make a little landing page and let it age, now!

Wow. can't believe it's already been 8 months since I got my domain registered. No ICANN woes either. Time really does fly doesn't it  

Anyway, I came to ask you about the mailing list you have on your site - how necessary do you think it's going to be to gain referrals in the long term? I'm asking this because I'm busy upgrading my almost-ready site and am not sure whether to invest in a mailing list service (Creative Mail in particular) right away or put it aside for later.

It's a news aggregator by the way, so gambling's served as a side section. I'm really not making a BTCGOSU competitor

[efialtis]

Let me know if you need help with anything specifically but listen to me - register that domain, make a little landing page and let it age, now!

Wow. can't believe it's already been 8 months since I got my domain registered. No ICANN woes either. Time really does fly doesn't it  

Anyway, I came to ask you about the mailing list you have on your site - how necessary do you think it's going to be to gain referrals in the long term? I'm asking this because I'm busy upgrading my almost-ready site and am not sure whether to invest in a mailing list service (Creative Mail in particular) right away or put it aside for later.

It's a news aggregator by the way, so gambling's served as a side section. I'm really not making a BTCGOSU competitor

Can you believe I have only realized your post now... Sorry about that!

I am personally quite a fan of newsletter lists, even in 2021. With BTCGOSU, we have been capturing a good amount of emails and stats show that people like getting some updates via email every once in a while.

Talking about time flying... oh man, it`s been 13 months since GOSU launch... Crazy that I started with thread in April last year and there were no signs of BTCGOSU at that point.